Granular Estimation of the Female Workforce in the Tourism Industry of India

Abstract

Travel and Tourism contributes more than 5% of India’s GDP and generates direct employment for at least 1.7 crore people. By combining direct and indirect jobs (such as transport logistics, handicraft production, local artisans, etc.), the tourism industry supports 4 to 7 crore jobs in India. The sector is women-friendly and has the potential to create tens of lakhs of additional job opportunities for women. The government of India is therefore driving numerous initiatives and drafting policies to accelerate tourism growth and thereby generate more employment opportunities for women. A key challenge in drafting these policies and monitoring their impact is the lack of granular workforce data on women. In this paper, we leverage quantitative techniques from Linear Algebra to estimate the women workforce in tourism-related industries at a granular level using the macro-level data published by government agencies. Our quantitative techniques are general and may, in the future, be used to estimate the women workforce at an even more granular level, such as the women workforce in specific tourism-related industries within particular districts.